The Week: Irish News Highlight Oct 29 2016

October 25, 2016

News highlights from Ireland, here, and around the world…

Nine people taken to hospital from Tayto Park

Nine people were taken to hospital over the weekend after they were injured during a visit to Tayto Park. The theme park, owned by the crisp company, had a Halloween themed event and a House of Horrors, when a staircase collapsed. At time of going to press there is no further information on the injuries. Tayto Park said they had been taken to hospital as a ‘precautionary measure’. A witness told the Irish Mirror there were about 15 people on the stairs when the incident happened.

“We were at the bottom of the stairs and they just collapsed in front of us. It was wooden. It came straight down to the ground along with the people on it.

“It was just madness. People were screaming and crying and climbing over each other,” said the anonymous witness. “There were a group of young teenagers on it. There was one fella who wasn’t moving at all at the bottom.”

A Tayto Park statement said: “Last night at approximately 8pm the lower portion of a permanent staircase leading to The House of Horrors gave way.

“The Tayto Park emergency plan was immediately put in place and the emergency services attended the scene.”

Red meat is biggest contributor CO2 emissions in Irish diet

Although Ireland fares relatively well on EU standards for CO2 emissions, the nation’s fondness for red meat is the main dietary ‘sin’ when it comes to the measurements. A study revealed that two fifths of greenhouse gas emissions linked to the food we eat in Ireland comes from the red meat we consume.

Teagasc looked at the diets of 1,500 adults for the study. The research said that our consumption of dairy products and starchy staples, including potatoes, contributed a tenth to the carbon footprint related to food.

Other groups – such as fizzy drinks, fruit and vegetables, pulses, nuts and beans – make minimal contributions to overall emissions.

A food’s carbon footprint is linked to various factors, including processing, transporting, storage and cooking. Alcoholic drinks also make significant increases to emissions, due to the process of growing hops and malt and making them into beer and whiskey.

Geldof considering move back to Ireland

Bob Geldof has said that if the UK adopts a Hard Brexit, he will consider moving back to Ireland. Speaking to the Sunday Independent, he said that since coverage of Theresa May’s intention to lean toward the ‘hard Brexit’ strategy, he had grown increasingly uncomfortable over here.

“When I left in the 1970s I just couldn’t live here (in Ireland). There was nothing for me here, just to be like me.

“And so, over the last decade or so, it has become, this sounds self-aggrandising and I don’t mean it to be, and many Irish people disagree with me and will say he’s talking through his a***… but I just feel more comfortable here and I have never felt uncomfortable in England until now.

“England has given me so much. But for the first time in my life I felt deeply, deeply uncomfortable with what is happening. Deeply, deeply uncomfortable. It’s like the British government is taking f**king speed or something.”

He added that his wife Jeanne Marine loves being in Ireland, but also how wary he was of the seemingly increase in right-wing attitudes across the globe.